EME 444
Global Energy Enterprise

Energy Supply and Demand

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To Read Now

Visit the European Union's Publications Office:

  • View at the bottom of the page (or download your own .pdf) "EU Energy in Figures: Statistical Pocketbook 2021." Browse through Section 1.2 - Energy in the EU (Overview) and Section 1.3 (EU 2020-2030 Targets). (Note that this is a clickable .pdf, so you can navigate quickly to sections.)

It will help to know that an Mtoe is a megatonne of oil equivalent. It represents the amount of energy released from burning one million tonnes of crude oil. In OECD/IEA tabulations, 1 Mtoe is equal to 4.1868 x 1016 J and is used as the general unit to describe the energy content of all fuels. (APS Physics)

The International Energy Agency (IEA)

was initially designed to help countries co-ordinate a collective response to major disruptions in the supply of oil, such as the crisis of 1973/4. While this remains a key aspect of its work, the IEA has evolved and expanded significantly.

The IEA examines the full spectrum of energy issues including oil, gas and coal supply and demand, renewable energy technologies, electricity markets, energy efficiency, access to energy, demand side management and much more. Through its work, the IEA advocates policies that will enhance the reliability, affordability and sustainability of energy in its 29 member countries and beyond.

Today, the IEA is at the heart of global dialogue on energy, providing authoritative analysis through a wide range of publications, including the flagship World Energy Outlook and the IEA Market Reports; data and statistics, such as Key World Energy Statistics and the Monthly Oil Data Service; and a series of training and capacity building workshops, presentations, and resources.

The four main areas of IEA focus are:

  • Energy Security: Promoting diversity, efficiency, flexibility and reliability for all fuels and energy sources;
  • Economic Development: Supporting free markets to foster economic growth and eliminate energy poverty;
  • Environmental Awareness: Analysing policy options to offset the impact of energy production and use on the environment, especially for tackling climate change and air pollution; and
  • Engagement Worldwide: Working closely with partner countries, especially major emerging economies, to find solutions to shared energy and environmental concerns. (IEA: Organisation and structure)

As noted in a prior lesson, the IEA is a subsidiary of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The IEA is careful to note that they are "an autonomous intergovernmental organization within the OECD framework."

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the International Energy Agency
October 15, 2009: Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, Dr. Henry Kissinger and Nobuo Tanaka, IEA Executive Director at the 35th Anniversary of the IEA. Location: Chateau de La Muette, Paris.

Launched in June 2006, Energy Technology Perspectives is the IEA's leading biennial publication. The series is a response to a request from the G8 in 2005 for guidance on how to achieve a clean, clever, and competitive energy future and how to achieve an 80% reduction in global CO2 emissions by 2050.

The 2020 Energy Technology Perspectives provides an analysis of how to achieve international "climate and sustainable energy goals," with a focus specifically on technology, including "electrification, hydrogen, bioenergy and carbon capture, utilization and storage" (IEA Energy Technology Perspectives 2020). Scenario building lies at the core of their analysis, and they focus on two different emissions scenarios, as follows:

Stated Policy Scenario: This scenario serves as a benchmark for the projections of the Sustainable Development Scenario. It assesses the evolution of the global energy system on the assumption that government policies and commitments that have already been adopted or announced with respect to energy and the environment are implemented, including commitments made in the nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. Where commitments are aspirational, such as the goal of reaching net-zero emissions, a judgement is made as to the likelihood of those commitments being fully met based on an assessment of the impact of measures that have been agreed to date. This scenario does not assume any future changes to existing and announced policies and measures, although it does consider their impact on long-term technology evolution as a means to guide scenario expectations beyond the time horizon of current policy plans .
Sustainable Development Scenario: This is the scenario which lies at the heart of ETP-2020 and that is used to illustrate the technology needs for reaching net-zero emissions from the energy sector. It describes the broad evolution of the energy sector that would be required to reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) most closely related to energy: achieving universal access to energy (SDG 7), reducing the impacts of air pollution (SDG 3.9) and tackling climate change (SDG 13). It is designed to assess what is needed to meet these goals, including the Paris Agreement, in a realistic and cost-effective way. The trajectory for energy- and industry-related CO2 emissions in the Sustainable Development Scenario is consistent with reaching global net-zero CO2 emissions from the energy sector in 2070
Source: IEA Energy Technology Perspectives 2020, pp. 68-70 

To Read Now

In the International Energy Agency's Energy Technology Perspectives 2020, read the following:

  • Go to Energy Technology Perspectives 2020. Download the full report (on the right-hand side, click "Full report" - there is also a copy in Canvas). Read the Executive Summary and "What we mean by clean energy technology" section on pp. 27 - 28
  • (Optional) Browse the full report.

The IEA provides a number of publications, many of which are freely available. Among them are the "Market Report Series" each year for a variety of fuels. They provide a lot of detail on various energy technology uses and projections.